


Another Christmas Story

by peoriapeoria



Series: Fitter of the Species [34]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Absence, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas, Emotional Baggage, F/F, Family, Feels, Not Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Compliant, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Parenthood, Returning Home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-25 01:19:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17111729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: Saving the world has a price and it's paid not just in blood.





	Another Christmas Story

**Author's Note:**

> Catharsis may produce ugly crying, please read responsibly.

Bobbi approached the house, the grass green and slick from the rain. It didn't look like December. It felt like a lifetime ago that she'd been last home. It had been; SHIELD had since fallen, she'd retaken The Iliad and then gone undercover inside HYDRA.

Her team had insisted that she and Tripp be able to leave S.W.O.R.D. before Christmas. She pulled into the drive, and pulled the key from the ignition. Bobbi walked to the open porch.

The front door opened, Laura holding a toddler. Their son. "You're beautiful, you're both beautiful." She wanted to sweep them into her arms, but she'd learned from experience startling children didn't work well. She was supposed to have been there.

"Wright, this is your Mommy." Laura's words brought running feet. Taylor was such a big girl and Cooper wasn't a baby anymore. He'd been only a little older than Wright last she'd seen him. She knelt and Cooper gave her a kiss. She glanced to Taylor.

Oh. Taylor hadn't come for her, at least not directly. "Sweetie, I wanted to be here. I've wanted to be here for so long."

Laura knelt down to their daughter, talking to her softly. She sat Wright onto his feet, then directed Cooper to look at Taylor. She walked off with her brothers like a bear with cubs.

"So the world's stopped coming to an end?" Laura pulled herself against Bobbi, shaking like she could move mountains.

"For now; or it will take us together if it comes." Bobbi held on and let herself be pulled into the house, Laura shutting and locking the front door.

"Then we should sit with the tree. Taylor will forgive you. It will just take time."

"And you?" She'd been given a suicide mission. It would have been a death sentence for everyone on the Iliad; ignoring it could have plunged the world into despair. Going undercover after was a small price compared to either, but it had still cost them.

"I've ways for you to make it up to me." Laura whispered into her ear and pulled out of their clinch.

Promising. But... "When were the gutters last cleaned?" Not that Laura couldn't handle anything that had to do with the farm; ladders and later pregnancy excepted.

Laura laughed. 

Okay, so they were on the same filthy page. To be bookmarked, since they had a tree to admire. They walked into the front room. "Wow." It was bigger, too tall to lift a child to put on a paper cone angel as the topper. In fact it had no topper, going as it did to the ceiling, almost. "When did you get it up?" She grabbed the throw from the sofa's back, wrapping it around her and Laura.

"Clint was bored. Don't suppose you know anything about that?" Laura set them both down.

Yeah, she did. "How much glitter did he leave with?" Coulson hadn't needed processing but might need dry cleaning. 

Taylor piped up then. "We were very careful." Then she remembered she was mad.

"Yes, you were, honey." Laura confirmed. "It was a little eerie, how little strayed."

Bobbi chuckled. Not everything that was weird was bad. Wright looked at her and giggled.

**Author's Note:**

> This story picks up after [Cleave and Cement](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13077405) and foreshadows a work upcoming. Wishing all of you a good 2019, with a bit of 2016.


End file.
